In the know? No.

Last Saturday was an interesting day, diabetically speaking.

Isabella started the day at 280-something. Pretty typical. I fed and shot 2 units as usual. Then I decided to test her three hours later. I hardly ever test in the early part of her cycle because I know she doesn’t start responding to the insulin until about 4 hours after the injection.

Turns out, I don’t know nothin’.

At her +3 test she was down to 108. The mathematically inclined can see right away that her blood sugar had dropped nearly 200 points already. The diabetically knowledgeable can see that the logical reaction to that is:

Uh oh.

There were many hours to go until Isabella’s insulin hit its peak effectiveness and only about 70 points between her and the dreaded hypoglycemia. Luckily, I didn’t have a lot to do on Saturday, so I stuck close to home and tortured my cat with a lancet pen.

+5: 55
+6: 48
+7: 58
+9: 62

Lovely double digits for many hours in a row. And a cat seemingly unaffected by these low numbers. Isabella was fine. A little annoyed by my constant poking, but fine from a diabetes standpoint.

At the time of the 62 reading, I fed the cats their afternoon meal and went to a movie. When I got home four hours later I tested Isabella one last time to see if she was ready for more insulin.

348.

Jeez. She was ready.

What a weird day. I don't know why she dropped so far so early. I don't know why she rose so high at the end. I don't know if she's been having a pattern like this as a regular thing since I increased to 2 units.

I don't know nothin'.

The many faces of time

I’ve been noticing lately how I think differently about time depending upon what I’m doing.

Holiday time
This holiday weekend, for instance, was all about days. Days and days without work (four of them, to be exact). Days of glorious weather. Days without commitment. I cared little about the hour, because I had all these days stacked up, without much I needed to accomplish. Those days are drawing to a close now, but I assure you, I was successful in accomplishing very little.

Project Time
My latest freelance job seems to be about weeks. I was given a deadline five weeks away. Five weeks is a freelance lifetime! Those weeks had much to do with why I did so little in the last four days.

Workout time
In the pool for a swimming workout, I focus on seconds. The coach assigns sets with time intervals. I calculate quickly: can I swim that distance, in that stroke, in that amount of time? Will I have any seconds left over to catch my breath before I have to do it again?

Work time
At work, like everyone else, it’s hours and days. How long until that doctor comes in to pick up the research he requested? How many days ‘til the weekend?

And woven throughout everything else, there is …

Diabetes Time
I rarely glance at a clock without at least subconsciously calculating how long it’s been since Isabella’s last insulin injection. Is she close to peak? Does she seem to feel how she should at this point in the insulin cycle? Is she sleeping too hard? Is she restless? Is she whining because it’s actually time for food, or is she low?

One thing that I’m only now beginning to trust is that Isabella’s insulin, PZI-Vet, doesn’t really start to have an effect on her blood sugar until about four hours after the injection. So, when I test her glucose before her shot, I have to guess what her sugar will be in four hours and shoot a dose appropriate for that number.

Today was the first time I consciously did that. She was at 156 (nice!) this morning, 12 hours after her last shot. She had eaten, which was going to cause her sugar to spike up. So I gathered my courage and gave her a full dose – not the halvsies I normally would have chosen. I tested her three and a half hours later, and sure enough she was in the high 200s. The PZI would kick in against that number and (fingers crossed) bring her back down into the 100s for a good part of the day. She’d probably hit her lowest point at about 9 or 10 hours after the shot, and start creeping up as the insulin wore off … just in time for the afternoon injection to start taking effect.

If I guessed all this correctly, her blood sugar should be between 150 and 200 when it’s time to inject her in a little while. Then again… she’s a cat. Her blood sugar could be anything. Stay tuned.

Tick Tock, Tick Tock … time passes


And the results are in: 357. So much for my predictions about smooth insulin cycles and likely blood sugar readings. Sigh. Why do I even try to guess?